Hadley Rose Winchester
by waywardwillow
Summary: Little did Sam and Dean know they have an older sister who was sent away before they were born because of her ability to see demons.
1. A Special Child

On July 7, 1977, John and Mary Winchester welcomed their first child into the world. They decided to name their baby daughter Hadley Rose and doted over her day and night. As she approached four months old, her eyes were already a vibrant hazel-green that contrasted beautifully with her dark brown hair. She was her parents' pride and the Winchesters were always showered with praise from friends and neighbors. Mary would often take walks in the evening with Hadley in a stroller and never failed to receive compliments about the girl.

One night, Mary was out walking when she came across a strange man she had never set eyes on before. The man peeked into Hadley's stroller and cooed to get her attention. As soon as Hadley laid eyes on the man, she wailed loudly and proceeded to scream uncontrollably until the man was out of her sight. Mary apologized profusely to the stranger and picked Hadley up out of her stroller to hold her and soothe her. Hadley gradually calmed down enough that Mary could put her back in the stroller and take them both home.

Things remained uneventful for the next few weeks, but when Mary took Hadley out again in mid-December—they had hit a warm spell and it was a nice evening—they happened across their neighbor, Amelia Harris. There had been several times Amelia had come over for dinner at the Winchesters' and she had spent several minutes each time making faces at Hadley while the baby girl giggled happily. Mary waved at her friend and steered Hadley's stroller over so they could talk. When Amelia waved at Hadley, the baby shrieked in fear and started a shrill, wailing cry that was nearly deafening. Mary quickly got her daughter out of the stroller and started stroking her back to calm her down. Every time she came close to soothing Hadley to silence, the girl would glimpse Amelia and start crying again.

"I don't know what got into her, Amelia. I'm really sorry. She loved being around you last time you came over."

Amelia watched Hadley carefully, a strange, thoughtful expression on her face. She moved herself into Hadley's path of vision again and watched as the little girl grew terrified and upset all over again.

"Amelia, I don't want to be rude, but maybe it would be better if you went somewhere else. I'm going to try to get Hadley back in her stroller and take her home. Maybe she's getting sick."

"Better keep an eye on that little one. There are a lot of dangerous things out there that want her dead."

Mary snapped her head to look at Amelia. "Are you threatening my child?" she asked icily.

Amelia closed her eyes, opening them up to reveal solid black. "Mary Campbell. I never forget a face. Looks like you went and got yourself settled. Had a little brat. Congratulations."

Mary clutched Hadley tightly against her chest. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus—,"

Amelia chuckled. "That's hardly necessary, Mary. I'm not here to hurt you or your baby. I'm just a scout."

Mary quit chanting. "A scout for what?" she inquired.

"Your daughter."

Mary started backing up. "What do you want with Hadley?" she demanded. "It can't be…I still have six more years…"

"It's not for Azazel, doll. I'm scouting for someone else. Someone who knows your daughter's potential and wants to see if she'll be a threat to us."

"She's five months old! What can she possibly do to harm you?"

"She can see us." Amelia threw her head back and the demon flew out her mouth without another word. Mary didn't stop to see if Amelia was okay; she quickly strapped Hadley back in her stroller and ran them both home.

Telling John that they had been scared by a stray dog, Mary triple checked that the doors were locked and brought Hadley's crib into their bedroom. The next day, when John went off to the garage, Mary called a hunter she used to work with on the phone and talked to him about the demon she had run into.

"It said your daughter could see them?"

"Yes. And I don't think she just meant the black smoke and black eyes."

There was a pause as Reilly thought. "I've heard that such things were possible, but I didn't honestly believe in them. Supposedly, there are some people—an almost nonexistent number there are so few—who can see a demon's true form even if it's possessing a human. If what this demon suggested to you is true, your daughter is in grave danger. Every demon in hell and on earth is going to be searching her out to kill her so she can't give them away."

Mary clutched the phone tightly in her hands. "What do I do then? John's got a partnership in a business here. I can't just tell him we have to move."

"Then you'll have to tell him what you were before you married. Otherwise, there are going to be a lot of questions when the demons start laying siege to your house to get to your baby."

Mary bit her lower lip. "What if I could find somewhere to send Hadley where she would be safe?"

"Where would you send her?"

"I don't know…a hunter refuge? Find some relatives who still hunt?"

"That would bring Hadley in contact with more demons. You need her to be as far away from them as she can be."

"Do you have any suggestions?" Mary asked hesitantly.

"Since you're so opposed to telling John about your past, there is no way you can protect Hadley at home. I know of a group of hunters in Europe who specialize in protecting children such as your daughter; I would be willing to take her there myself and watch over her. But you have to find a way to convince John to let her go."

Mary glanced over at Hadley who was napping in her crib. "Give me until tomorrow. I'll call you when I get things worked out."

Reilly wished her luck and hung up.

When John arrived home for dinner that evening he was concerned to see Mary looking worried and stressed. Kissing her on the cheek, John asked what was wrong.

"I found out Hadley has…has…she has a condition. The doctor said it's not life-threatening right now, but left untreated it could kill her."

"Then we'll do whatever it takes to make her better. Did the doctor have any recommendations?"

"He said he knows a doctor in Europe who can take care of Hadley."

"Then we'll move to Europe so she can—,"

"John." Mary gently chided her husband. "You can't leave the garage; you've got too much invested in it. Besides, I found an uncle of mine who's willing to take Hadley with him to Europe when he goes to visit some of his friends."

"How long will she be gone?"

"The doctor wasn't specific, but he suggested we wait to take Hadley back until she turns eighteen."

"Eighteen? We can't abandon our daughter like that!"

"By then most of her hormones will have sorted themselves out. He promised that any possibility of the condition coming back or getting worse would be gone by then because her body could cope with it."

John went over to Hadley's highchair and picked her up. "You get to go on an adventure, Had," he whispered in her ear. Kissing her on the forehead, John added, "Be careful. Your dad's going to want you safe and sound when he gets you back."

It was an emotional evening in the Winchester household. Mary and John were busy putting together everything Reilly would need when he came to pick up Hadley the following afternoon. At separate times, each of them had run off into town to obtain something for their daughter. John carefully packed a gorgeous locket bearing a rose on the outside. He had placed a picture of the three of them—a smiling John and Mary with baby Hadley in the middle—inside the locket for Hadley to remember them by. Mary had gone to her safe-deposit box at the bank—she had some old hunter items there—and had removed an antique key from the contents. It unlocked a storage shed out in Iowa where some very valuable and very dangerous items were stored. She left a note for Hadley to open when she turned eighteen, telling her what the key was for—she knew someone with gifts like Hadley's was destined for a life of hunting and figured such things would come in handy.

The following day, at three o'clock precisely, Reilly showed up in a battered pickup truck in the Winchesters' driveway. While Mary secured Hadley's car seat in the back seat of Reilly's truck, John helped Reilly load all of Hadley's things in the tool box in the truck bed. In less than twenty minutes, the three of them finished what needed to be done and Reilly climbed into the driver's seat of the truck.

"I'll make sure she arrives safely," he promised. "I'll try to send word when we're at the doctor's, but I don't know what sort of postal service they have out there."

Mary and John thanked Reilly profusely for all his help and waved a tearful goodbye to him and Hadley as they drove out of Lawrence.

Reilly pulled into the Kansas City Airport about an hour after leaving Lawrence. Packing all of Hadley's stuff into his industrial-sized suitcase, Reilly hauled the suitcase behind him with one arm while carrying Hadley with the other. He had purchased tickets the day before and picked them up from the ticket window at the airport. They settled down outside the gate to wait for their flight at 6:15. Reilly started nodding off with Hadley in in arms when she began fussing. A shifty-looking passenger was walking past the two of them, his hands shoved in his pockets as he glanced sideways at Reilly. Clutching Hadley close to his chest, Reilly pulled a water bottle out of his jacket pocket and slowly unscrewed the lid.

The stranger took a seat to Reilly's left, placing him too close to Hadley for Reilly's comfort. He shifted the girl so she rested on his other side and struck up a simple conversation with the other passenger.

"Pretty nice weather for December, isn't it," he remarked.

"A little chilly for my taste," the man replied gruffly.

"Where are you flying to?" Reilly asked, trying to keep the man occupied.

"None of your business." The stranger leaned forward and turned his head to look carefully at Hadley, who was curled up against Reilly's shoulder. Reilly turned his body to place himself between the man and Hadley, his intuition telling him something was wrong.

"Christo," Reilly said suddenly, watching for a reaction from his seat partner.

The man flinched, his eyes changing from a faded blue to solid black. He lunged at Reilly, but the hunter splashed the contents of his water bottle on the man's face, causing it to smoke and steam painfully.

"Exorcizamus te, Omnis Immundus Spiritus," Reilly began chanting quietly but forcefully. "Omnis Satanica Potestas, Omnis Incursio Infernalis Adversarii, Omnis Congregatio et Secta Diabolica, Ergo Draco Maledicte, Ut Ecclesiam Tuam Secura." The demon tried to get away, sputtering black smoke, but Reilly yanked him back into his seat with one arm and finished, "Tibi Facias Libertate Servire, Te Rogamus, Audi Nos!"

Black smoke poured into the floor until the demon was completely exorcised and gone. Thankfully, no one else had been around to witness the occurrence. Reilly put the cap back on his water bottle and stood up with Hadley to walk to the boarding gate. The stewardess called for passengers to board at 6:00 and Reilly nervously took his place in the middle of the plane. With help from the flight attendant, Reilly set up Hadley's car seat in the plane seat next to him and placed her in it before buckling her in tightly.

He carefully surveyed the other three passengers who got on board, hoping that they were not more demons coming after Hadley. He had only half of a water bottle left with holy water and two pockets full of salt to repel them if they were. Through all three layovers and fifteen hours of flying, Hadley slept peacefully but Reilly found it impossible to relax. Finally, they coasted into the Thessaloniki Airport and the flight attendant announced that it was time to disembark.

After managing to carry both the car seat and suitcase in one hand, Reilly went to the outside of the airport to wait for Damon, a Greek hunter, to come pick him and Hadley up. Several minutes went by before an old jeep rattled up to the front of the airport with a young man in the driver's seat.

"Damon?" Reilly ventured to ask.

"Yes. You are Reilly, then?" Damon replied, his English thickly accented. He motioned for Reilly to step into the passenger side of the jeep and wasted no time in loading the luggage in back. Reilly buckled a rather loose safety belt around his waist and situated Hadley firmly in his arms. Damon took off in the jeep, jolting over rugged country roads as they went north.

"How far?" Reilly asked loudly over the growl of the engine.

"25 kilometers," came the shouted reply.

Thirty minutes later, they came skidding to a halt outside a medium-sized stone house. Damon turned off the jeep and climbed out, going immediately to unload Reilly's luggage. A few people—four men and a woman—came filing out of the house to greet the two Americans. They all shook hands in greeting before the oldest man spoke up.

"My name is Acheron," he said. "This is Draken, Kiril, Theron, you met Damon already, and my wife, Mya. Now, you must be exhausted. A flight from the Middle United States is long and tiring; come inside and Mya will show you to your room."

Damon and Draken picked up Reilly's and Hadley's luggage and hauled it inside while Mya ushered Reilly to a small chamber on the far side of the house. "It is not much," she apologized, "but it is the best we could offer."

"Thank you. It is more than I could have asked for." Reilly went to put Hadley down in the small crib in the corner of the room, buy Mya offered to take the child.

"She must be hungry. I will care for her." Mya whisked the child away to the kitchen where she pulled out a jar of applesauce and began feeding Hadley. Acheron came into the room and put his arm around his wife's shoulder.

"So this is the child who can see demons," he mused. "We are quite blessed indeed to have such a powerful girl in our care."

"How much demon activity do you see on average?" Reilly asked, entering the kitchen as he pulled on a clean shirt.

"None around here," Acheron replied. "We keep an eye on most of Central Macedonia—news reports, rumors, you know the deal—and sometimes get called out to other parts of Greece to handle larger issues. Your daughter will be safe here."

"She's not my—,"

"Acheron? Murder out in Xanthi," Damon interrupted.

"Chest cracked open, torn apart, they're saying wolf or bear," Draken added.

"You boys know the drill; we have some blessed silver knives in the dining room," Acheron ordered. "Take the jeep; it'll handle the dirt roads to Xanthi better."

"Blessed?" Reilly inquired. "I thought plain silver worked for werewolves."

"Oh we don't usually run into werewolves this far north. It's lamias that run loose around here. But we've got enough priest-blessed silver knives to take care of them," Theron explained.

"Lamias? Fascinating. I thought they were just a myth," Reilly mused.

"We have much more wild monsters here in Greece than you have back in pampered America," Mya remarked proudly. "It'll take some getting used to."

"I'm an accomplished hunter and I learn fast; just teach me what I need to know. All I ask is that you help me keep Hadley out of harm's way."

"That's why we invited you here," Acheron reminded Reilly. "You're in very capable hands. She is not the first gifted child we have had under our care."


	2. The Lunch Thief

"Hadley, dear, lunch is ready!" Mya called from the kitchen.

Hadley came racing into the room, clutching a wildflower in her hand. "I picked it for you, Aunt Mya!" The little girl snatched a clean shot glass off the counter and held it up. "Can we put it in here?" she asked.

"Of course we can, darling," Mya replied. She filled the glass half full of water and carefully placed the flower inside.

Plopping down in her seat at the kitchen table, Hadley looked intently up at Mya. "When is Reilly coming back?"

Placing a plate full of food in front of the four-year-old, Mya pondered how best to answer. "We'll just have to wait and see," she said after a moment. "They're chasing a rogue empusa, so there's no telling where that she-demon has led them off to."

Hadley scrunched her face, wracking her memory for what an empusa was. In addition to being taught to speak both Greek and English, Hadley was being educated on all sorts of supernatural creatures that lived in and around Greece. Frowning, she was disappointed to draw a blank.

Mya noticed Hadley's frustration and offered a hint. "Flaming hair."

An image immediately flashed in Hadley's mind: a fierce woman with hair on fire stood over a man, drinking his blood. The next image she saw was of the same woman, only this time she was eating her victim. Her eyes widened and Hadley stared at Mya. "What if she hurts Reilly?"

Mya smiled reassuringly. "Reilly is a very good hunter. And he's with Acheron and Damon. They've handled empusas before."

"How do you kill one?" Hadley's hazel eyes were wide with curiosity. Despite the fact that she had been torn from her family at such a young age and taken away to a strange country, Hadley maintained a very cheery disposition and was always eager to learn more about hunting.

Sensing that they would get no closer to eating lunch until Hadley's insatiable desire for answers was fulfilled, Mya guided the girl into a back room of the house. It was the Contos family's armory and it housed a very impressive collection of weapons. Picking up a large bronze sword off the wall, Mya held it down so that Hadley could look at it more closely.

"This is made of bronze." Mya tilted the sword so that it caught the light. "It's a special kind, mined from Mount Olympus. If you use it against an empusa, it sends the creature back to Tartarus. Takes one a long time to crawl back out of there."

Hadley ran her finger along the flat side of the blade, staring at it in fascination. "Did Reilly take one of these with him?" she inquired, still not satisfied that her adopted father was safe.

"Of course he did," Mya reassured her. "They all took one."

A noise from the kitchen startled them both. Mya placed herself protectively in front of Hadley, holding the bronze sword firmly in her hands. Instructing Hadley to grab ahold of the back of her shirt, Mya slowly worked her way from the armory to the kitchen. Peering cautiously around the corner, she stifled a gasp of surprise.

Perched on the edge of the table, a woman with wild brown hair snatched up part of Mya and Hadley's lunch in her sharp talons. With her winged arms resting at her sides, the creature seemed unaware that her thievery was now being watched.

Still grasping the end of Mya's shirt, Hadley peeked around Mya's leg to see what was happening in the kitchen. She tugged gently on Mya's shirt, her eyes asking for an explanation of what she was seeing. Pulling Hadley back down the hallway and out of earshot of the creature, Mya knelt down so she could look Hadley in the eyes.

"I need you to stay here and be very quiet. I'm going to take care of that thing in our kitchen and then I'll be back to get you."

Hadley nodded mutely.

Patting the girl reassuringly on her shoulder, Mya raised up the bronze sword and stepped out into the kitchen. Addressing the creature in Greek, Mya warned it to get out of her house. Dropping its stolen meal, the woman screeched and flew at Mya, talons raised.

Without flinching, Mya swung the sword up, scoring a hit on the creature's wing. The woman backed up quickly, baring her teeth at Mya as she retreated toward the door. Holding her injured wing at her side, she glanced back and forth between her food and Mya.

"I said," Mya stepped forward threateningly, "get out." She took another step toward the winged woman, keeping her sword leveled at the woman's chest. Realizing that Mya was not the type of person to back down from a confrontation, the creature scurried out the kitchen door and took off into the air.

Rushing out the door to make sure the creature was actually flying away, Mya shouted one last warning into the sunny afternoon sky. When she came back inside, Hadley was still sitting against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest as she stared at the wall in front of her. Hearing someone walking toward her, Hadley turned her head to make sure it was Mya.

She could tell by the woman's expression that whatever danger had been in the house had been taken care of. "Aunt Mya, what was that?" Hadley's eyes were wide with a combination of inquisitiveness and fright. Even though she had glimpsed the creature for only a split second, she knew that, whatever it was, it was not something Mya wanted to be in her house.

Mya sat Hadley down in the living room and told her to wait. Bustling about closing and locking doors and windows, Mya silently cursed her carelessness, realizing how much she had put Hadley at risk. She had been fortunate to only have to deal with one rogue harpy; Mya understood that she could have been faced with something much worse, and with everyone else out on hunts, there would have been very little she could have done to protect Hadley. After she was confident that her house was once again secure, Mya went back to join Hadley in the living room, bringing her a sandwich to eat.

Hadley took a bite without saying anything, sensing that she was going to receive an explanation soon. Sure enough, Mya sat down beside her and said, "That was a harpy in our kitchen, Hadley." Taking another bite out of her sandwich, Hadley waited patiently for Mya to continue talking.

"She was scavenging our lunch," Mya explained. "Harpies tend to do that, but if you interrupt them or threaten them, they're prone to attack."

"Did you kill her?"

"No, dear. She wasn't hurting anyone." Mya hoped her decision to spare the harpy's life would not come back to haunt her later. "But I did warn her never to come back this way again or she wouldn't be so lucky."

"Good." Hadley finished off her sandwich before handing the plate back to Mya. She was still too young to truly understand what Hunters did and what sort of life she had been thrust into by necessity. All she understood was that her adopted family—Reilly included—went out and fought bad things to keep her and other people safe.

Becoming bored with their conversation, Hadley jumped off her seat on the couch and raced back to the room she shared with Reilly. Grabbing her teddy bear—one of the only things she had from when she was a baby—Hadley sprinted back out to the living room, nearly colliding headlong into Mya, who had stood up to leave.

"Goodness, child, be careful!" Mya, as she had done countless times before, questioned her decision to house the two Americans. Reilly wasn't a problem; he was a very capable hunter and often had insightful suggestions to make to the Contos's hunting techniques. Hadley, on the other hand, was quite the little whirlwind. Mya and Acheron had already raised four son, but having another child to rear and look after—especially in their line of work—was an extra task they had not expected to have to take on.

Holding her teddy bear up over her head, Hadley announced, "Andy Bear and I want to go pick flowers."

"Hadley, that harpy could still be out there. You need to stay inside where it's safe." Mya hated having to keep Hadley cooped up, but she couldn't risk the little girl being hurt or killed.

Hadley pouted, crossing her arms across her chest and scowling at Mya. "But Andy didn't get to pick flowers with me this morning. He feels left out!"

"Then now is a good time to teach Andy that he can't always do what he wants to."

"But why not?" Hadley whined. "We'll stay close to the house!"

"Because you're too young to be out alone. The monsters know where we live and they might come try to hurt you."

"Andy Bear will fight them off!" Hadley pushed her teddy bear up toward Mya. "He's brave!"

"Hadley Rose, I am not going to say this to you again. _You are not going outside_."

"But Aunt Mya—," Hadley protested.

Mya pointed down the hallway. "Go to your room," she ordered firmly.

Holding her teddy bear at her side, Hadley stomped back to her room, slamming the door behind her. She sat down in the middle of her floor, setting Andy down gently in front of her. "I'm sorry, Andy," she apologized, "Aunt Mya is being mean today." Having learned the hard way not to throw a screaming fit when things didn't go her way, Hadley spent a few minutes throwing her pillow around her room to get rid of her anger.

Once she had calmed down, Hadley scooped her teddy bear up in her hands and began making up adventures for the two of them to go on. That day, she and Andy were great adventurers traveling the world in search of monsters to slay. No monster was too difficult for them and the courageous pair saved many innocent people from the terrible beasts that hunted them.

Back in the living room, Mya sat down wearily on the couch and asked herself again why she had let Acheron talk her into taking in the fugitives. Putting on her reading glasses, she picked up a book from the table and started reading. Like Hadley, she forgot her troubles as she traveled into a fictional world where everything turned out as it should.

As the sun began to set, Mya put her book down and went out into the kitchen to make dinner. While the food was baking, Mya went back to check on Hadley. She opened the door to find the little girl and her teddy bear diving behind the dresser, shouting for a make-believe harpy to put down the cheese it was holding. When the imaginary harpy apparently ignored the duo's demand, Hadley burst out from her hiding place and charged at a pillow that had been set against the wall. Punching it a couple times, Hadley and Andy celebrated their victory by jumping up onto the bed and sprawling out in exhaustion.

"When you're done slaying monsters, dinner's on the table." Mya headed back down the hallway, only to be overtaken by a very eager—and very hungry—Hadley. With Andy Bear standing guard over them during the meal, Hadley and Mya ate in relative silence. After draining the last of the milk from her glass, Hadley got up to leave the table.

"Hadley." Mya waited for Hadley to turn back around and look up at her.

"Yes, Aunt Mya?"

"Do you understand why you couldn't go outside this afternoon?" Feeling that it was important for Hadley to understand the severity of her situation, Mya waited while Hadley thought of a response.

Picking Andy up off the counter, Hadley hugged her bear close to her. "The bad monsters want to hurt me because I'm special," she answered.

"That's right." Mya knelt down to pull Hadley into a hug. "And you may think I'm being mean sometimes, but I'm just keeping you safe."

Kissing Mya on the cheek, Hadley ran back down the hallway and into her room. "Good night, Aunt Mya!" she called from inside her room before closing the door. Changing into her pajamas, Hadley climbed up onto her bed and burrowed under the sheets. Holding Andy Bear tightly in her arms, she fell asleep and dreamed of being a great warrior fighting dragons alongside her faithful companion.


End file.
